I was fortunate to be able to attend the AutoWeek Design Forum for the second year in a row. It is a full day filled with speeches, presentations and cars from the top automotive designers around the world. This was the seventh year for AutoWeeks’ Forum, and it is growing every year. My company is AutoWeeks’ largest advertiser so we get special invitation which includes a front row table with Mark Storm, Midwest Advertising Director, in a room filled with nearly 700 people involved in the automotive industry. This was the second year I got to meet Dutch Mandel who is always a riot to talk with. This year was extra special with Carrol Shelby as Special Guest to receive the award along with Ford for Best of Show with the Cobra Concept.

The Forum starts at 8:30 AM sharp. The speakers are design directors from around the world. The presentations are loud and passionate. The speeches are entertaining and thrilling for someone as big a gearhead as I am. The presentations are filled with the stories and backgrounds of the young designers who have created concept masterpieces for the show. The chief designer at Ferrari gave an incredible story of his dream come true in being selected for his new position and gave a virtual tour of the famous Ferrari facility in Italy on the giant screens as he spoke.

After a fancy lunch the doors open to the show for five hours, giving the press and automotive industry a chance to preview the show before the public. It was packed with hungry survey monkeys crawling all over creation. The displays are incredible and the cars are being polished every five minutes. Television news crews are setting up and people are exchanging stories and business cards in many different languages. Its an electric atmosphere just ringing with the exhaust note of what’s hot in cars for 2004 and beyond. The mood is exciting and spokes people are rehearsing their lines. There is a good wait along with a few polite shoves to get close up photos. By 5 PM my feet are feeling the walk.

At 5 PM is the cocktail party. I drink down my Labatts Blue while watching many world renowned automotive designers make their way into the party with their entourages. I catch Carrol Shelby walking up to the bar and quickly nab an autograph and a handshake. I'm numb with excitement. Next comes dinner at 6 PM, while Dutch Mandel and Rich Ceppos of AutoWeek speak and prepare for the awards ceremony. The awards ceremony was preceeded by Edward Welburn, the newly appointed Vice President of Design for GM. His speech was very entertaining and he strikes me as a pretty laid back guy. He talked about his yellow '69 Camaro SS and that made me a real fan of his. The last award presented was for "Best of Show", given to Ford and Carrol Shelby. It was a real treat to hear Carrol Shelby talk about the making of the car and how much fun he had with J Mays and his design crew at Ford.

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